Fishing for plastics: the plastic composition in the river Rhine caught using stow nets

As part of the EU Interreg VI project “De Rijn Verbindt / Der Rhein Verbindet”, Rijkswaterstaat is investigating stow nets as monitoring strategy to analyse the sources of plastic pollution in the river Rhine. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the composition of plastics in the Rhine in Germany and the Waal in The Netherlands using stow nets as a sampling method. Sampling took place in two locations in the Rhine in Germany with two different ships by the same fishermen. In the Waal in The Netherlands another fisherman sampled at two different locations, using one ship with a slightly different net. Comparisons were made between locations and fishermen. A total of 3877 plastic pieces were collected and categorized based on the River-OSPAR classification system. The research focused on several aspects of plastic pollution, including the surface area of plastics, categories, origin, expiration date, and frequently found plastics. Furthermore, the data from this study was compared to the stow net data of 2018-2021 and surface area of the plastics was compared to trawl net data from 2023.